Thread: Don't Copy Me!
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Old 05-08-2008, 01:18 PM   #4 (permalink)
StarLab
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Had this happen several years ago.

I developed a site for a Canadian company selling Icelandic Sea Salt online.

Three weeks after launch, my client sends me a link to a web site by an Icelandic site also (attempting) to sell sea salt online.

They copied everything, right down to the typo I had made on the home page. (Didn't discover the typo until this issue had come up)

They obviously had no idea how to use CSS as they had inserted <font> tags all over the code. The kicker is, my style tags were still in the source code. Just no style sheet attached.

They didn't bother with the shop. They only offered phone or fax orders.

My client phoned them but nobody spoke english. Emails went unanswered. (To both the company and the webmaster link)

Because my client was a startup company, they could not foot the bill go through international law to resolve the issue. Hence, nothing got done about it.

The offending site disappeared a few months later when the domain expired.

Is there really anything an average web-user can do? If you aren't a company who can afford to flip the bill for legal fees and investigation, there really isn't anything effective you can do about it. (Other than complain)

Simply post your copyright notice/terms of usage and hope for the best.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I don't launch websites with typos. lol This client didn't want me using British spelling and I had used the word "night" instead of "nite"
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Last edited by StarLab : 05-08-2008 at 01:41 PM. Reason: Typo explanation. :)
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